Saturday, December 24, 2016

Tragicomedy of a Corrupt “Anti-Corruption” Government

This column has lately become more passionate about goings-on
in Nigeria’s political and economic spheres than is usual. I can’t help it. The
country is perilously adrift. Hopes are sinking. And time is running out. I
simply can’t afford the luxury of indifference and blithe unconcern.

In spite of the awful performance of the Buhari government
on the economic front so far, it was usual for people to say that the one thing
that was still going for the government was the president’s integrity and intolerance
of corruption. No more.

The past few weeks have shown that the president isn’t the
anti-corruption crusader Nigerians thought he was. Both the optics and the
substance of his “anti-corruption” fight would go down in the annals, at least
so far, as the most brazenly compromised and selective since the restoration of
democratic rule in 1999.

As corrupt as the Jonathan administration was, it was once
railroaded by the force of public opinion to “accept the resignation” of former
Aviation Minister Mrs. Stella Odua over her controversial purchase of MW
armored cars worth $1.6 million. Even Obasanjo, not exactly an apotheosis of
integrity, fired a number of his ministers accused of corruption.

But a man who rode to power on the strength of his credentials
as a dogged anti-corruption fighter is looking the other way when his close
aides are accused of corruption. The president, it’s now obvious, is only
interested in fighting corruption if his political opponents are the accused. So we have graduated from "stealing is
not corruption" under Jonathan to corruption is not corruption when the
people accused of it are the president's "anointed."

Firm, undeniable
evidentiary proofs of Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai's alleged corruption have been published. So have Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman
Dambazzau's, and now Babachir David Lawal's. Rotimi Amaechi has been
accused of bribing judges, and Abba Kyari has been accused of accepting a N500
million naira bribe from MTN, among others.

The president’s first public reaction to allegations of
ethical impropriety against his associates was to defend them, a privilege he
doesn’t extend to others. “Terrible and unfounded comments about other people’s
integrity are not good,” he said through his media adviser. “We are not going
to spare anybody who soils his hands, but people should please wait till such
individuals are indicted.”

But he appears to be “sparing” some sacred cows. SGF Babachir David Lawal of the multimillion
naira “grass-cutting” infamy is the latest sacred cow enjoying privileged presidential
protection. The evidence against him is so demonstrably damning that a serious
anti-corruption government would fire him forthwith and prosecute him later.

People who are intimate with President Buhari told me several
months ago in the heat of my unrestrained enthusiasm over his emergence as
president that he was morally and temperamentally unsuited to fight corruption.
They said the undue premium the president places on “personal loyalty” causes
him to ignore, excuse, and even defend the corruption of his close associates.

I was regaled with
troubling tales of the mind-boggling corruption against close, loyal aides that
he swept under the carpet at the PTF, The Buhari Organization (TBO), and at the
defunct CPC. Babachir Lawal was a dominant figure in CPC; he knows President
Buhari well enough to know that nothing will happen to him for all his
villainous rape of vulnerable IDPs in Borno and Yobe as long as he can impress
the president that he is irrevocably "loyal" to him.

I had hoped that the president would learn lessons from his
past and change— at least for the sake of his personal legacy, given that he is
old and has the privilege of a second chance to rule Nigeria. Apparently, I was
naive. Now "anti-corruption
fight" has become the sauciest joke in Buhari's Nigeria.

If Buhari wants to reclaim whatever is left of his fast
depleting moral capital, he should not only fire and prosecute Babachir David
Lawal, he should also do the same to other high-level kitchen cabinet members
arrogantly luxuriating in obscene corruption.

The presidential directive to “investigate” government
officials accused of corruption isn’t good enough. It was intentionally vague
and deceitful—like most things by this government. It looks like something that
was written on a whim, and appears calculated to just deflect attention from
the piercing, sustained, public searchlight on the corruption taking place right
under the president's nose.

Notice that it deliberately lacks specifics such as timelines
for investigation, names of people to be investigated, terms of reference of
the investigation, etc. Plus, given the government's notoriety for invidious
selectivity and double standard, I have no confidence that this government has
the moral courage to find any of its key officials culpable of any infraction.

Unless the president really and truly wants the truth, the “investigation”
will either be endless or will come out with a predetermined verdict of
exoneration—well, unless enough people of conscience rise up and hold the
government's feet to the fire.

In any case, it has turned out that the Attorney General of
the Federation and Minister of Justice doesn't even have the constitutional
power to "investigate," which lends weight to the suspicion that the
directive was nothing more than a flippant, hurriedly-put-together distraction.

Mr. President and
Saraki

President Buhari’s laudatory birthday message to Senator
Saraki was strange, but unsurprising. You can't superintend over a government
swimming in an ocean of corruption and not one day praise the very man your
administration (rightly) painted as the byword for corruption. Now, Saraki's
alleged corruption and Buhari’s toleration of corruption have merged. What else
is left?

After calling Saraki "one of the most influential
politicians of our time who has made tremendous impact on the country,’” Buhari
said "Saraki has successfully kept the memory of his late father alive by
identifying with the grassroots in his home state.”

Nope, Mr. President. Saraki does NOT identify with the grass
roots in Kwara State; he exploits them. I am from Kwara, and know that Saraki
is the worst evil to ever befall the state.

As I wrote in my October 24, 2015 column titled, "WhoWill Save Kwara COE Lecturers from Saraki’s Deadly Grip?" “Senate
President Bukola Saraki is called Kwara State’s ‘Governor- General’ for a
reason: He is, for all practical purposes, the state’s de facto governor, and
Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed is merely his impotent, obsequious caretaker. Ahmed
must dutifully take orders from Saraki or risk losing his cushy surrogate
governorship. This isn’t a flippant, ill-natured putdown of Governor Ahmed, who
seems like a nice person; it’s an uncomfortable truth that many Kwarans know
only too well.”

Under Saraki's vicious grip, some Kwara workers were owed
salaries for upwards of 14 months. Pensioners are owed several months' arears
and are dying. And now, Saraki, through his caretaker governor, is copying
Buhari's reverse Robin Hoodist governance template and has imposed steep taxes
on poor people's meagre incomes, houses, lands, domestic animals, etc. And this
is the man the president says identifies with the “grassroots” in his home
state”?

Subscribe To This Blog by Email

My Blog Followers

About Me

Dr. Farooq Kperogi is a professor, journalist, newspaper columnist, author, and blogger based in Greater Atlanta, USA. He received his Ph.D. in communication from Georgia State University's Department of Communication where he taught journalism for 5 years and won the top Ph.D. student prize called the "Outstanding Academic Achievement in Graduate Studies Award." He earned his Master of Science degree in communication (with a minor in English) from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and won the Outstanding Master's Student in Communication Award. He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication (with minors in English and Political Science) from Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, where he won the Nigerian Television Authority Prize for the Best Graduating Student. He writes a weekly column for the Nigerian Tribune. His research has won top awards. Read more about him here: https://www.farooqkperogi.com/p/about-me.html